what are we sailing for?
by Yotsubadancesintherain5
Summary: There was a loyal twin. Loyalty came with drastic measures.


The first few days had been spent weeping, curled in on herself, and huddled close to Sophie. Before all this the raiders had surprised them, forced them all on the ground, and traded two for so many more lives.

The first few days, after the pity for them had dried up, they were sent to a special enclosure in the community. Walkers kept locked up, for training purposes, and a knife was given to Minerva and a bat to Sophie.

"We don't know how to fight walkers," Minerva has said lamely, and still they were forced into the enclosure.

"Then you'd better learn damn fast," was the response from the raider, and the walkers began their walk towards the twins, their mouths gaping and groaning.

Sophie began to scream and Minerva hissed at her to shut up, and her legs shook so much she felt like she was going to collapse. Still she stepped forward and drove the knife into the closest walker. Viscera spilled out, and still it groaned and Minerva remembered, strike the brain, and she pulled out the knife to jam it into the walker's head.

There was a sickening crack to her right and Sophie rose up the bat again and brought it down on the walker's head. The bat was decorated with bits of brain matter.

The next walker got the knife to the side of the head, and the last walker that Minerva destroyed had the knife pulled out of its head and then slammed in, again and again.

Covered in blood and viscera the twins were allowed the leave the enclosure. Minerva thought, traitorously, "Those were once people," and her stomach emptied its contents.

As Sophie rubbed her hand along Minerva's back, the twins heard a chuckle, some measurement of pride in the laughter.

"I think we can make fine soldiers of you yet."

Minerva spared a glance at him, with tears still in her eyes, and tried to bring her song to her mind.

There was no use for singing here. When she was on patrol her childhood songs would bubble up in her throat and she was punished by her superiors. In time she could kill a walker as easy as breathing and her superiors quietly lauded her devotion.

Sophie was never praised. She sang lowly.

And the first time Minerva took a life she comforted herself that it was all for the good of the Delta.

"Minnie, it's right there," Sophie said, pointed to the raft floating languidly on the river. "We can just take it, now."

"But our people need us," Minerva protested, and to that Sophie gave a glare.

"They're not our people, Minnie! They kidnapped us! We need to go home, and our chance is right there."

"We have a reason to protect this place," Minerva replied but the words felt false on her tongue.

"We have a reason to protect our school," Sophie insisted. "We can hate Marlon and Brody all we want from here, but damn it, Minnie, I want to go _home_."

"They didn't want us. They would've come for us by now."

"What about Ruby, then? She never cared for you? Louis, he always made you laugh, Minnie, and you don't do that anymore."

Minerva's throat tightened up and Sophie didn't relent.

"I know you want to see Violet again, and you know that she would never stop looking for you."

"It's not-"

"You know that Tenn loves us," Sophie said, the killing blow.

Minnie said nothing. She went to the raft to untie the rope that tethered it to the pier.

It only took a spotlight to find them, not even far from the Delta, and they were capsized and dragged out of the river. Three of their superiors were left with what to do with them when they were back in the Delta.

"A pair of traitors," Isabella said, and she pushed the barrel of the rifle close to Minerva's forehead.

"No!" Sophie screamed. "She didn't do anything! It was all me, punish me!"

"Is this true, Minerva?"

Minerva's mouth went dry and she could only nod numbly.

The rifle was taken away from her forehead and Minerva breathed out hard.

"But she needs to prove her loyalty."

"Then she can prove her loyalty by killing the traitor."

Sophie collapsed, her breath inhumanely fast, and Minerva's protests were blocked by her tightened throat.

"She stole the raft with her hands, so she shall use them again."

Minerva's lungs and throat burned with agony, and her stomach was a hollow husk. Her head pounded, and the tears wouldn't stop.

She tried to breathe deeply and she couldn't, leaving herself in frantic breaths. Agony swarmed through her head like crimson butterflies, and the image of the bright red mark on Sophie's throat was branded in her mind.

"You've done well," Lilly said, almost calmingly. "Not many can prove their loyalty like that, Minerva."

"I didn't want it like this," Minerva gasped. "We just wanted to go home. We just…"

"This is your home," Lilly replied. "You've always been a part of the Delta family."

Minerva curled up on herself, short cries escaping as her vision blurred again.

"If you truly miss that place," Lilly said, "Then we should recruit there again. Tell me about it, won't you?"

Minerva rambled for as long as it would take for Sophie's final breath to stop repeating in her head.

"_It's not too late, Minnie. You could come back to the school with us_."

The option was forever lost to her when Sophie died under her hands.

Her only hope, her last traitorous thought, was that Tenn could continue living on without her.

**A/N: Originally posted on AO3 on Febuary 25 2019**

**Slipped in a little Fatal Frame II reference and had a realization while writing this that Lilly nearly killed Minerva's remaining family member.**


End file.
